Americans Are Right To Oppose ObamaCare

September 26, 2013

The Continued Blame Game: Everybody who dislikes ObamaCare is being duped by GOP propaganda, says President Obama. That must include all those unions calling it a disaster, and all those who’ve lost jobs and pay because of the law.

Telemundo, the only news outlet that appears willing to ask Obama a tough question, pressed him this week about polls showing most Americans oppose ObamaCare. “Is everybody wrong?” the host asked.

Let’s leave aside the fact that the Obama administration has spent a king’s ransom promoting ObamaCare, and that Democrats and the liberal press have devoted three years to extolling its alleged virtues, and the fact that the public never supported this law to begin with.

Truth is, ObamaCare is a rolling disaster that is creating new enemies every day as its harmful effects ripple through the economy.

This week, the prestigious Cleveland Clinic announced plans to lay off as many as 3,000 workers “to prepare for health care reform.” And hundreds of franchise owners came to Washington to explain how ObamaCare’s employer mandate will force many of them to cut worker hours to avoid its massive costs.

Last week, Connecticut’s Lawrence and Memorial Hospital cut dozens of jobs, citing “massive structural change” brought on by ObamaCare. More than a dozen other hospitals have recently announced job cuts.

That same week, the AFL-CIO voted overwhelmingly for a resolution calling ObamaCare “highly disruptive,” despite concerted efforts on the part of the White House to convince labor leaders not to do so.

Other unions have been far less polite.

Then there are the jobs killed by ObamaCare’s excise tax on medical devices. Last fall, device maker Stryker Corp. laid off 1,170 workers because of that tax — which both Democrats and the GOP are now trying to repeal.

IBD has been cataloguing businesses, public institutions and local governments that have cut jobs or worker hours specifically citing ObamaCare. That list is now more than 250.

Other companies are cutting benefits for part-time workers, spouses, early retirees or their entire workforce, because of ObamaCare. Every one of those workers has a good reason to want the law killed.

On top of this, the public may be noticing the growing pile of ObamaCare’s broken promises. Among them:

• Family premiums haven’t gone down by $2,500 annually, as Obama repeatedly said they would. They’ve gone up $2,976.

• Workers are increasingly finding that they can’t keep the health plans they like, despite Obama’s pledge that they can.

• ObamaCare is adding to federal budget deficits, as IBD recently reported, even though Obama claimed it would cut red ink.

• The law is hurting small businesses, not helping them.

The public even might have noticed that Obama himself has shown the law to be seriously flawed.

According to the Congressional Research Service, he repealed, changed or delayed pieces of ObamaCare 19 times. That includes the employer mandate, the verification rules, the limit on out-of-pocket costs, and the ability for workers at small companies to have a choice of plans in the exchanges.

None of this has anything to do with Republican propaganda.

Neither is Obama’s oft-repeated claim true that Republicans have no alternative to ObamaCare. This week, conservative lawmakers introduced a package of reforms they’ve long advocated that would cut health costs, make insurance more affordable and protect those with pre-existing conditions.

The public’s dislike of ObamaCare is real, and it is well-deserved. Now it’s up to Republicans to seize on this and stop the law before it can live down to their expectations.

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Frontiers of Freedom, founded in 1995 by U.S. Senator Malcolm Wallop, is an educational foundation whose mission is to promote the principles of individual freedom, peace through strength, limited government, ...